Nerdy Morty is guiding his flying saucer back towards Earth to escape the evil thing that threatened him and his mad grandfather in season four. The steering wheel suddenly comes off. The flames begin to lick the steering wheel.

You might be wondering if flying saucers have steering wheels. I’ll spare you your plodding literalism. Morty convinced that he and his sociopathic science whiz Rick will die upon re-entry makes his last phone call. You object that this is absurd: I cannot get mobile coverage in my kitchen or even outer space. You plum, abandon your skepticism.

He says, “Jessica! It’s Morty from School,” as the beeping ramps up. “Oh. Jessica paints her toenails in the sunshine of her bedroom. Morty continues: “I want to say that you are great. It didn’t work out between us, but I think that you’re amazing.” She replies, “Oh, I mean. That’s a lot.” “I wish that you had said it sooner. Sometimes being nervous can be selfish. Morty replies, his fear of imminent death making Morty’s voice crack even as he struggles with sangfroid. “That’s a great point.”

Our re-entry into Rick & Morty (E4) is now underway. This event has been so captivating that fan sites have been using countdown tickers to track airtime for the past few weeks. My initial thoughts that this cartoon was a rip-off of Back to The Future was long forgotten. (Morty is Marty McFly without the guitar skills. Rick is a knock-off from Doc. Futurama’s sci-fi chutzpah and Family Guy coarseness are also present). It’s cleverer, funnier, and more sophisticated than its forebears. This is an adult cartoon that fills the gap in my soul where the BoJack Horseman used to go. With brilliant writing and a worldview that’s so dark, it makes BoJack look Pollyannaish.

Rick and Morty now have a handheld device that allows them to access a portal that connects to the space station at Morty’s parents. It is not Rick or Morty’s forte, and it should not be. Cosmologists and philosophers of the future will be interested in how their adventures ramify across the multiverse, causing pasts and futures to be distorted according to Hugh Everett III’s many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics.

Morty, in this episode of season 5, crosses the portal to obtain some wine. Although it isn’t clear how he will get there in space-time and time, let’s not dwell on the details. He needs the wine to win Jessica’s affection, and also because mad Rick is entertaining Mr. Nimbus in another room. Nimbus is, as you all know, the ruler of the oceans.

Nimbus ranks somewhere between Mick Jagger or Russell Brand on the evolutionary scale. His superpower is a phallically oppressive, groin thrust with a pouch capable of killing all foes. Because Rick and Morty crashed-landed in his domain of the ocean, Mr. Nimbus is furious and demands that he win and dine before signing a peace agreement with Rick. A subplot is also about Morty’s parents. Their resurgent sex life leads them into the folly and danger of a threesome with Nimbus. However, both wonder if it’s because they want it.

Here’s the problem. Morty enters the portal and finds himself in a vineyard ruled over by a new civilization of friendly, talking, hoofed, intelligent animals. He returns to the portal for more and finds himself in a different world. Their ruined farmstead is littered with rotting vines and hoofed animal bones. They have been destroyed by Morty’s tinkering with the space-time continuum. We see a martial society emerge from the ashes. It builds a fort and then trains a hero to cross through the reality of death to defeat the “dark child” (ie little Morty). This is similar to how Arnie was sent back to stop a terminator from killing the leader in the human resistance to machine tyranny in Terminator 2. Check out other Renewed TV Shows.